Oklahoma State basketball: Markel Brown is the mayor of LobStilly

STILLWATER — Markel Brown continues to put in hours at improving his all-around game and expanding his profile beyond being defined as just a dunker.

Oklahoma State's Markel Brown (22) dunks the ball over Missouri's Steve Moore (32), Ricardo Ratliffe (10), and Matt Pressey (3) during an NCAA college basketball game between the Oklahoma State University Cowboys (OSU) and the Missouri Tigers (MU) at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman

And it shows.

He'll soon be the first player in program history to amass 100 steals, 100 blocked shots and 250 assists. His 1,340 career points rank 18th all-time at Oklahoma State, and he's on pace to crack the top 10 by season's end.

Yet being honest, Brown still digs the dunk.

And plenty of folks dig Brown's dunks.

A frequent flier on SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays, the Cowboy senior's athleticism and hops drop jaws almost every time he drops the hammer on opponents.

Windmills. Alley-oops. 360-degree spins.

Leaping. Launching.

Brown is the mayor of LobStilly, a land of dazzling dunkers aplenty.

His secret?

“I have no clue,” said teammate and pal Brian Williams, an impressive leaper in his own right. “It's got to be genetics. He's been doing this since before we got here. He's just so explosive for his size, very explosive.”

And explosive is an appropriate description, since most of Brown's dunks feature great force — from a 6-foot-3 guard.

Maybe that's what makes him so appealing to the folks at ESPN, who have taken Brown's jam sessions to the nation's masses going on three straight seasons. He's hit No. 1 once already this season, taking what he called a “great bad pass” from Phil Forte and turning it into an in-air, 360-degree throwdown on Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

ESPN used his three-dunk performance against Robert Morris as a montage at No. 3.

And those are just the latest.

“When I do one of those dunks, immediately I get tweets saying, ‘Markel's going to be on SportsCenter.' Things like that,” Brown said. “I like doing those type of dunks. It's exciting. It gets the crowd pumped up. It gets my teammates some hype.

“People are excited about those kind of things. Being able to have my school show up on SportsCenter for Top 10 plays is awesome.”

Almost as soon as Brown produces something special, an alert goes out on Twitter.

Of course, his teammates sense it even sooner.

“I definitely know when he's made SportsCenter, just from being around him so long,” Williams said. “He has a lot of bounce and he's not afraid to use it.”

Brown's freak athletic skills allow him to freelance on the fly, although he admits there's some practice involved, too.

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